Social Media and Impaired Driving

"Social Media and Impaired Driving" by A.A. Williams 

as appeared in Impaired Driving Update, Summer, 2010

Social media has permeated society.  It no longer serves as merely a way to connect with family and friends.  It is now a marketing medium, a business resource, and a way to encourage better decision-making regarding alcohol consumption and driving while under the influence. 

Facebook.com, one of the leaders in the social media trend, has over 220 pages dedicated to impaired or drunk driving, not including the businesses and professionals who have pages about their facility or organization.  Apple’s iTunes has over 35 applications for their iPhone or iTouch regarding alcohol usage including drink and consumption trackers, laws, and “tips”.  While many of these pages and applications do not give real solutions to a real problem, some groups are on the cutting edge of using technology to improve the safety of our streets and to help those in need of assistance – the end user - to get help.

For example, in Mary Elizabeth Hurn’s article, “Ad Council, Transportation Department launch drunk driving PSAs targeting women” (2009, www.dmnews.com), she describes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s update on their prevention efforts: 

Social media is a main element of the campaign. The initiative includes a Facebook application, which informs consumers about the latest drunk driving statistics, as well as a presence on Twitter. These elements drive users to buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org, where they can play an interactive game called “Spot the Difference” and sign a pledge not to drive buzzed.  The PSAs can also be seen on YouTube.

Last year, Max Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal, spoke to Caroline McCarthy of CNET about social media being used for the greater good and “an Alcoholics Anonymous app on Facebook.”  (2008, news.cnet.com).  His vision: 

"If you're trying to recover as an alcoholic, there's no easy way for you to join an anonymous group on Facebook. So creating an anonymous group type on Facebook for something that people have to get off their chest but don't really want to reveal their identity (in doing so)...it's pretty utilitarian."

While social media could never remove the need for face-to-face contact and group processing, the concept to connect with individuals to encourage, motivate, reduce feelings of isolation, and give resources and tools to make successful decisions can only enhance the process of reaching out to this high-risk population.  The easier and more accessible information is to the end-user, the more likely it will be used when needed.

SADD National’s Facebook page is connecting more than 4,300 people to “provide students with the best prevention tools possible to deal with the issues of underage drinking, other drug use, impaired driving, and other destructive decisions.”  With each page or status update, they send a reminder to all 4,300 members of the importance of clear decision-making, planning ahead, and the possible impact decisions might have on self and others. 12-step approach, iPhone applications like DBJApps’ “Steps Away – Locate Worldwide 12 Step Meetings”, which gives information regarding local resources, meetings, contacts, and maps to service locations, and Falesafe Consulting, Inc.’s Friend of Bill, which promotes sobriety and easily connects an individual with his or her sponsor, could be used as examples of what impaired driving programs could create to put additional resources in clients’ hands.  Social media and phone applications could be designed to provide numbers for transportation, guidelines for decision-making, consumption information, and a place for users to record his/her plan for getting home without driving.  For individuals in a government or treatment program, the application could also include required meeting times, emergency staff contact information, and probation officer contact information.

If used appropriately and creatively, social media can add an additional cost-effective and wide-reaching method of promoting responsible behavior and reducing impaired driving incidents.  Social media technology is moving from just marketing and entertainment into the realm of teaching and reaching.  A feeling of community, positive peer pressure, easy to access information, tools for permanent life-change, and means of obtaining assistance could be as easy as accessing a social networking site the individual may already be familiar with or one that is simple to learn.  Social media can be harnessed to not only be an effective tool for communication and marketing, it can be used to help those in need.  It can also help protect the unknowing who might otherwise be driving in the lane next to someone who got behind the wheel impaired.

Social Media and the Pea by Alice Ann Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.socialmediaandthepea.blogspot.com.
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